WTF Moments Of 2015

Another year has passed and once again there are some events in pop culture that just make you say to yourself: WTF?

There were a lot of those moments this year, so I tried to pick out the ones that really stood out for me.

Here we go:

CREATOR RIGHTS

Once again a hot button topic. It seems with the increase in comics being make into movies and TV shows, creators are being left off the credits and not receiving the royalties that I believe they deserve. There were some positives, though. Like, Bill Finger finally got the credit for co-creating Batman and other Batman-related characters. But, there are still so many more creators out there that aren’t getting the credit they deserve.

You can counter the argument that it’s all work for hire. But when, for example, you watch the Daredevil show, you have a modern writer like Brain Michael-Bendis getting a credit, but not Wally Wood (who actually created Daredevil’s iconic costume). It just seems like two steps forward, two steps back when it comes to creator rights

SLAVE LEIA

This all started with another clueless parent that trying to be a social justice warrior. It began with a Fox news story back in July: a parent was upset with the Hasbro Star Wars Black Series Slave Leia action figure. The parent in question had two little girls and got all bent all out of shape in seeing this toy on the pegs. Mind you this figure was actually released in 2013, and has been a peg warmer for 2 years! So, I just don’t get the shock all of sudden. Every toy and big box stores had the figure sitting there collecting dust.

This isn’t some random bikini clad action figure, either. It’s a figure based on a pop culture iconic costume from 1983. 32 years the Slave Leia costume has been in our culture. And while the stores and manufacturer, Hasbro, didn’t buckle…Star Wars’ owner Disney did.

In November, Disney Consumer Products announced they would no longer be licensing the costume for any type of merchandise. The actor who actual wore the costume, Carrie Fisher, had her own thoughts on this entire Slave Leia debacle:

How stupid was that? How about telling his daughter that the character is wearing that outfit not because she’s chosen to wear it. She’s been forced to wear it. She’s a prisoner of a giant testicle who has a lot of saliva going on and she does not want to wear that thing and it’s ultimately that chain, which you’re now indicating is some sort of accessory to S&M, that is used to kill the giant saliva testicle…. That’s asinine.

Personally, it’s a lot of something out of nothing.

DARK KNIGHT III: THE MASTER RACE

It was announced at 2015’s San Diego Comic-Con that Frank Miller would be working on a third part to his Dark Knight Returns saga. After the trainwreck that was Dark Knight Strikes Again, did anyone really want another sequel? Originally, the third part of the trilogy was supposed to be Dark Knight: Holy Terror but DC didn’t want Batman fighting Al Qaeda. So, Miller went ahead and publish it without Batman as the main character. Even still, all the characters in Holy Terror are just knock offs from Batman. Badly drawn over and renamed knock offs.

It was later announced that writer Brian Azzarello would be co-writing this new sequel, with artwork done by Andy Kubert. As the book got closer to the release date, it was further revealed that Miller wasn’t writing it at all!!! Then why is Miller’s name even on the book? It’s amazing how quickly people forget that Miller’s last DC Comics’s book, All-Star Batman and Robin, was horrible. Horrible writing with Jim Lee’s people blinding art. Let’s not forget, Miller is the same man who gave us the “Goddamn Batman” from that story.

Now the first 2 issues have hit, and personally, I still have no interest.

MARVEL

Well, I hate to say it, but I’m going to. If there was a douchebag of the year award, I’d give it to Marvel for all the nonsense they’ve pulled this year.

Starting with the minor…Secret Wars. It was supposed to be Marvel’s summer big event, but it’s been plagued with delay after delay. First, it was an 8 issue mini-series, but it’s been changed to 9 issues..in the middle of the run! I get that delays happen, but it really pisses me off when it’s supposed to be a game-changing event, and the damn thing is late. This affects the other books that spin out of it and it creates spoilers. We already know who lives and who dies, so why should we even care?

I love the fact the writers, artists, and even the editors go online (and in cons) and make little jokes about the book being late. Hey, late books aren’t OK! Stop dicking us around and give us an answer why the book is late. Screw it…I’m not reading the damn thing, anyhow.

And now the biggest WTF of the year: Marvel’s treatment of Fantastic Four and the X-Men. It’s absolutely disgusting the way they are treating these two important properties. Fantastic Four started the Marvel Age, and X-Men carried Marvel through two rough years. Just because 20th Century Fox has the film rights, Marvel feels they can just drop both from the Marvel Universe. When Marvel was in bankruptcy, they were still trying to get movies made, so they licensed out characters to film studios. Years later, Disney buys Marvel, and now Marvel has the balls to throw around their weight. They pretty much demanded that Fox gives back the rights to the Fantastic Four and X-Men films. Fox, though, wants to honor the contract that’s in place. So what does Marvel do? Cancel the Fantastic Four comic and start to eliminate mutants from the Marvel Universe.

Marvel did everything in their power not to promote the Fantastic Four film that came out this summer. They even went so far as to cancel the comic. Marvelites will tell you that the sales weren’t good, but that’s not true. I know. I checked the numbers myself. The book was canceled out of spite. And then Marvel wouldn’t allow Fox any merchandise licensing. So, that meant no toys, books, etc. That’s BS in my book. Yes, the film was bad, but that still doesn’t justify what Marvel’s actions.

That’s not even mentioning all the rumors of artists being told not to draw the Fantastic Four for Marvel’s 75th anniversary book, and no new FF characters to be created.

With the X-Men, Marvel is trying to phase out mutants all together and replace them with Inhumans. Sorry, but Inhumans are not mutants. Marvel went so far as to retcon characters like Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver so they’re not longer mutants. Marvel pretty much focuses on the Avengers these days, but the Avengers wouldn’t have been as big as they are if Brian Michael-Bendis hadn’t added two ringers to the line-up: Spider-Man and the mutant X-Man Wolverine. Oh…that reminds me…Marvel also killed off Wolverine this year. Kill off one of your most popular characters? Great move!

The funny part is Fox has the rights to Deadpool and have a movie coming out in February 2016. And while Marvel may be a bunch of jackasses, they aren’t stupid. Deadpool they’re marketing. There’s money to be made!

And there you have it. Just some of the highlights that stood out this year. It’s not a complete list, by any means. It’s just some of the top stuff that made me say…WTF?